Lust Lust Lust : The Raveonettes : Review : Rolling Stone

In a previous life, half a century ago, sune Rose Wagner was probably an aspiring Raymond Chandler, churning out tight, bone-hard fiction about rogue gumshoes and icy femmes fatales. In this life, Wagner — the singer-guitarist-songwriter-producer half of Danish duo the Raveonettes — does the same thing in seven-inch-single bites, soaking his short stories of want and danger in fuzz guitars, squealing-tire feedback and his furtive-whisper harmonies with singer-guitarist Sharin Foo. Most of "Aly, Walk With Me," the first song on the Raveonettes' third album, Lust Lust Lust, is as cold and bleak as an all-night stakeout: reverb, a worried-heartbeat pulse and Wagner's and Foo's voices marking the way like torchlight. That is, until the guitars blow in like the Velvet Underground Orchestra.

After the rich synthesis of Sixties girl-group candy, CBGB punk and My Bloody Valentine-style amp howl on their two Columbia albums, Wagner and Foo have gone back to the rougher basics — distortion, echo and monastery-choir vocals — of their debut EP, 2002's Whip It On. But the simplicity is deceptive. Wagner manicures the noise with a light, hip touch — the scraped-treble ripple of the riff in "Lust" sounds like it's slithered in from the 13th Floor Elevators' 1967 album, Easter Everywhere — and the pair makes smart, beguiling combinations of Wagner's open homages to Buddy Holly, the Chiffons and Suicide: the death-march strum and chantlike singing in "Expelled From Love"; the way Foo's harmony hangs, clean and poised, over the white-noise riot of "Blush"; the fast, urgent contradiction of the singing, keyboards and fistfuls of guitar snarl in "Dead Sound," which is anything but. You always get beauty and the beastly, in equal measure — but never the same way twice.

DAVID FRICKE

(Posted: Feb 21, 2008)

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Review 1 of 2

4of 5 Stars

(4 1/2 stars) Lust Lust Lust may not be revolutionary but is certainly a stand out this year. The songs sound very similar but there is no need to change a sound that sounds so good. Try Dead Sound

Mar 12, 2008 15:35:25

Review 2 of 2

2of 5 Stars

I'm all for slight alterations of historical sounds because what else is the contemporary artist to do? It seems like embracing the inevitable plagiaristic nature of supposedly new sounds is more honest and creative than any illusory parade of originality. With that being said, I can't see any reason for the existence of "Lust Lust Lust." "Pretty in Black" was a nifty little tightly arranged gem that was obviously a throw back but still felt refreshed. When I pop in "Lust Lust Lust," I just kinda want to go get "Psychocandy" or "Velvet Underground and Nico" because that's where they did "this" better.

The atmosphere is groovy and the music cascades but nothing sticks; a slipperiness that is mostly the fault of the wallpaper vocals. Call me crazy but I need some kind of oral resonance for a pop/rock album to work. I get the whole "gradual alterations of a given set of variables" as an album and I encourage the method but it can be done it more interesting ways (See Red Hot Chili Peppers "Stadium Arcadium." Those songs are all in the same mode but each differentiated enough to perpetually engage).

It's a shame too because the guitar work, especially towards the end, is close to pillowy bliss and Sharin Foo does have a godly voice but I'll take "Uncertain Times" anyday.

Feb 23, 2008 20:28:55

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